What is blackhat exactly? It refers to the old Western movies where the hero always wore the white hat and the villain always wore the black hat. The villains were on the losing end pretty much every time but in today’s fast-paced online world with astronomical earning potential, in a lot of cases it is the blackhatthat comes out on top. For years, the search engine providers have been tightening their guidelines and working on their algorithms to provide the best content possible. The professionals in the wings have carefully monitored the situation and have taken notice every time a significant change occurs. Search engines today are predicated on their ability to provide relevant, high quality information. This comes in the form of products that can be purchased or services, or just straight information. The algorithms are far more complex than they used to be and so people versed in the etiquette of optimization practices have developed a series of techniques that have been tested and that do work. The only problem is that sometimes these techniques fall short. Sometimes no amount of optimization is going to save the day. Maybe, in some cases it is too costly to risk optimizing and the potential revenue streams are unclear and it would affect the current bottom line.

That is why people have turned to blackhat services to some degree. I suppose it is not really a service, and more like an ethos. Black hats have always prided themselves on figuring out how things work. Its human nature and these people happen to take this very seriously. The natural side effect of figuring out how something works is learning its flaws. So you see here is the rub. By exploiting these flaws, often only known to the blackhat in particular this can be used to make either a ton of money, or gain a ton of brownie points or both. These people are usually interested in money and brownie points and also obviously do it to caress their own egos. That being said, as the person delving into the world of making money on the web, knowing some of these tactics will come in handy as you develop your strategies. You won’t have to reinvent the wheel or break a system yourself, but what you can do is benefit from the immense amount of experience and information members from that community have to offer.

So where to go then? Black Hat World is top on my list. A lot of these types of communities tend to be closed in and unavailable or unwilling to help those who are consider newbie. Black Hat World is one of those rarities that encourage those not well versed in such tactics to participate in their forums and ask questions. From my experience this is exceedingly rare and very valuable. A lot of people are skeptical and also concerned about wading into this subject area but know that your competitors have traveled the same ground and understand that you will be better off with the best information possible.